Testing Mobile Phones For Controlling Space Missions

Posted by Soulskill on Monday January 24, 2011 @08:08AM from the droids-in-space dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers in the UK are sending an Android handset into space in order to test whether mobile phone chipsets are robust enough to be be used as the basis for controlling future space missions — greatly reducing the cost and weight of spacecraft electronics. 'Once in space, the phone will be bombarded by cosmic and solar radiation, and experience temperatures that veer between extreme heat and cold. A computer on the ground will check whether the phone is able to operate normally in orbit, and if no problems are found the phone will be used to perform tasks usually carried out by the satellite's main avionics computer.'"

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Reason Why They Aren't Using an IPhone by Ancantus · 2011-01-24 08:15 · Score: 5, Funny

Their App was rejected from the App store.

--
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. -- Isaac Asimov
1. Re:Reason Why They Aren't Using an IPhone by Ancantus · 2011-01-24 08:29 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  Whoosh. (...or "double-whoosh" on my part).
  Which is, coincidentally, also the sound the space shuttle makes when they hit the launch button on the app.
  
  --
  Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. -- Isaac Asimov
2. Re:Reason Why They Aren't Using an IPhone by PopeRatzo · 2011-01-24 09:29 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  No self respecting robot would use an iPhone
  If you visit your local Starbucks, you will find that you are mistaken.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
2010 by Anonymous Coward · 2011-01-24 08:21 · Score: 0, Funny

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